Up to now, electronic parts, in the form of chips, mounted on the printed circuit board such as by setting them thereon, without using terminals for connection, have been in use.
For mounting the electronic parts in the form of chips on the printed circuit board, an automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, controlled by a computer, is in use.
As this sort of the automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, such an apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is in use. The mounting apparatus for electronic parts, shown in FIG. 1, includes a furnishing unit for electronic parts 2, for continuously furnishing electronic parts in the form of chips, a mounting head 5 for transporting a suction nozzle 3 adapted for sucking and holding the electronic parts 1 by air to a pre-set mounting position on a printed circuit board 4, a positioning unit 6 for positioning the electronic parts 1 and an XY table 7 for supporting the printed circuit board 4 in the XY directions perpendicular to each other.
The electronic parts 1 used in the automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts are shipped in a state of being accommodated in s supply reel 8 for electronic parts, and transported by the automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts shown in FIG. 1 to a working site for mounting the electronic parts 1.
The supply reel 8 is comprised of a reel 9 on which an elongated carrier table 10 is wound, as shown in FIG. 2. On the carrier table 10, electronic parts of the same sort, for example, are arrayed longitudinally of the carrier tape 10 one-by-one and provisionally secured, such as with an adhesive. The supply reels 8 for electronic parts are loaded on plural part cassettes 11 provided on the furnishing unit for electronic parts 2, as shown in FIG. 1, and are stored in this state in an automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts. The carrier tapes 10, wound on the supply reels 8 for electronic parts, loaded on the parts cassettes 11, are pulled out towards the loading head 5.
The mounting head 5, constituting the automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, has a rotary table 12, rotatable about a center axis, and plural suction nozzles 3. These suction nozzles are arrayed circumferentially of the rotary table 12, about the center axis of the rotary table 12 as center. By rotation of the rotary table 12, the suction nozzles 3 are moved between a suction position of sucking the electronic parts 1 supported on the carrier table 10, a position setting position of positioning the electronic parts 1 by the positioning unit 6, and a mounting position of mounting the electronic parts on the printed circuit board 4.
For mounting the electronic parts on the printed circuit board 4 using the abovedescribed automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, the printed circuit board 4 is transported from a loading station and loaded on the XY table 7. The electronic parts 1 are then sucked by the suction nozzles 3 in the suction position and the rotary table 12 is rotated for moving the suction nozzle 3 to the position-setting position. At the position-setting position of the suction nozzle 3, the electronic parts 1 are positioned by the position-setting unit 6. After the end of the position setting of the electronic parts 1, the rotary table 12 is rotated for moving the suction nozzle 3 to a pre-set mounting position on the printed circuit board 4 for mounting the electronic parts 1 sucked by the suction nozzle 3. When the suction nozzle 3 is moved to the mounting position on the printed circuit board 4, the suction nozzle is lowered towards the printed circuit board 4 to mount the electronic part held thereby on the printed circuit board 4.
When the mounting of the electronic parts comes to a close, the XY table 7 is moved to the mounting position for the next electronic parts. This sequence of operations is repeated. After mounting all of the electronic parts, the printed circuit board 4 is returned to its initial position. After the end of the pre-set electronic parts 1, the printed circuit board is discharged from the XY table 7 to an unloading station.
In the conventional automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, the vertical movement of the suction nozzle 3 and the rotary movement of the rotary table 12 are performed in a pre-set sequence each time an electronic part 1 is mounted on the printed circuit board 4, and again the suction nozzle 3 performs vertical movement. The plural electronic parts 1 are mounted on the printed circuit board 4 by the repetition of these series of operations.
Meanwhile, the structure of the electronic circuits used for electronic apparatus such as personal computers is changed for each type of the electronic apparatus used. That is, the printed circuit boards of different structures of the electronic circuits are used for different types of the electronic apparatus of the same kind. Therefore, multiple species small quantity type production is used for printed circuit boards used in electronic apparatus such as computers.
With the above-described automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts, the production efficiency is high and the production cost is inexpensive for producing a large quantity of the printed circuit boards of the same kind. However, the automatic mounting apparatus for electronic parts itself is large-sized so that limitations are imposed on the mounting space. Moreover, the mechanical portions of the apparatus and hence the operation are complex to render it difficult for plural operators to use the apparatus easily. For manufacturing the multi-species small-quantity type printed circuit boards, it is necessary to use such an apparatus in which the mounting positions of the electronic parts can be easily changed responsive to design changes in the printed circuit boards.
Also, for manufacturing the multi-species small-quantity type printed circuit boards, it is desirable to lower equipment cost for the manufacturing apparatus or to improve the operational efficiency as well as to accord a degree of freedom to the installment environment of the manufacturing apparatus.